


Mistake

by DynamicKea



Series: Fluxed Lalna AU [1]
Category: The Yogscast
Genre: Falling Into The Flux Sphere, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-24
Updated: 2015-02-24
Packaged: 2018-03-14 21:53:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,694
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3426905
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DynamicKea/pseuds/DynamicKea
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lalna falls into the flux sphere instead of Nano.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mistake

‘Hey, _hey_ , hey now!’

Nano flailed in mid-air once more, eyes wide and arms frantically swiping at the air around her. She flipped in midair before landing flat on the roof of the tower. Her elbows scraped against the wood, splinters poking into her fingers. She came to a stop at the edge of the roof, clutching tightly to the rivets.

She glared upwards at Lalna, who was doubled over - in mid-air - with laughter.

‘Gettin’ a bit feisty,’ Nano said.

‘That was close,’ Lalna said, before aiming the portal gun at her again.

Nano darted backwards away from the holes in the world. ‘Y-stay away from me. _Stay_ away from me with your stupid portal gun. I’m going over here.’

‘I won’t kill you,’ Lalna said. The unstifled giggles did nothing to help him sound reassuring.

Nano reached the other side of the roof and made to slide down. ‘I’m running away. I’m running away, leave me alone, leave me alone.’

Lalna descended, hovering upside down in front of her. He grimaced and flipped the right way up. ‘You’ve got a jetpack, why don’t you just jetpack out?’

There was a pause as Nano fell. Next came a roar from a second jetpack firing up. Nano shot away from Lalna. She yelled something over her shoulder, coming to a stop beside the flux sphere.

Lalna landed on it. ‘I wouldn’t go too near this,’ he said, tapping it with his foot. ‘There’s a large amount of flux inside it.’

Nano gave a mid-air shrug. ‘Don’t worry ‘bout, I’m hiding from you. I’m hiding from you, because I don’t trust you with that gun.’

As Nano spoke, Lalna took out a plasma gun and aimed upwards. Five four three two...

Nano yelped and twisted in mid-air away from the ball of crackling electricity. ‘No! And I don’t trust you with that gun! What are you doing?’

Lalna was wheezing with laughter now, his aim suffering in direct proportion to it. He stepped forward. ‘I like my guns,’ he said.

His foot met empty air.

Lalna’s eyes widened and his arms windmilled. He kept trying to latch onto the edges of the hole. But he was already dropping away from it. Memories of the swirling, invisible purple vortex burst into his mind’s eye as he fell. One hand was numb, franticly fumbling for the switch on the jetpack. The other trailed after the hole that was now several metres too far away. _I’m not wearing my suit..._

‘Shit!’

Lalna dropped through the invisible sphere. His back cracked against the crystals that lined it’s bottom. Lalna could imagine the sound of the little edges grabbing hold of his lab coat. Each of those edges ripping it apart. Their mouths hungrily searching for his skin.

The button was finally found and Lalna shot back up. The fastest way was through the middle and out the hole. Lalna instead swung round the edge, flopping to the surface of the shell. Next the hatch was recovered and slammed shut.

Lalna’s hands were shaking.

‘Lalna?’

Nano was curiously floating beside him, peering through the glass hatch. ‘Um, did you just fall-?’

‘Get away from me!’ Lalna yelped. He tried to ward Nano from him with his hands, only to freeze and pull back. ‘I, I fell in the flux, Nano!’

‘Um...’ Nano did the exact opposite and drew forward. ‘Is that really bad?’

Lalna breathed in sharply. What was going to happen? Was he already dead? ‘It’s terrible! We, we have to quarantine me. Or you. Or the entire bloody castle, and I could work on something while you go hide-’

The girl was still looking politely puzzled. ‘Why do you have a hole in it, if it’s so bad?’

‘I didn’t expect to fall in there! I usually have protective clothing.’

 _Then_ Nano increased the throttle on the jetpack and floated a little higher. ‘But, you’re wearing that now, right? You stuck some protective shizzle in your lab...coat....’ **  
**

Nano’s voice trailed off. She was now above Lalna, staring at his back.

‘What, what is it?’ he whined, craning his neck.

‘Um.’ Nano laughed nervously. ‘Uh, your lab coat... it’s, well.’

Lalna patted one shoulder and winced. Little lacerations littered the skin and the lab coat was shredded. ‘It, it’s not protective enough...’ he said. He giggled and shifted on top of the glass sphere. Was his brain just imagining the flickers of purple gazing up at him?

‘Are, do you feel OK?’ Nano said. She had dropped back down to his level, but at a glare from Lalna she remained several metres away. Nano started circling him.

Lalna flexed his gloved hands. ‘My back hurts, it stings a lot.’ Lalna shivered. ‘And I’m really cold, shaky. That might just be because of the cuts though.’

Nano looked like she was wringing her hands as she floated past and headed behind him. Lalna fought the urge to chuckle hysterically as Nano looped back to face him. ‘Lalna, I thought this was just magic. Won’t it you know, not do anything?’

Lalna searched for a few seconds for the right words. In the end, he settled for “simple as shit”. ‘Well, it’s... it is magic, but it’s the exact opposite of good magic.’

‘Oh. And you just fell into it and sliced you back open?’

‘Yeah, and it’s like, pure chaos, and, and evil. Uh...’

‘Hm. Two questions,’ Nano said. She was now several metres to the left and still circling, her voice growing strained. ‘...one, heh heh, why do you have it?’

‘It comes with the good magic, you have to have an equal amount of bad magic. ‘Specially if you make it angry. Like I did.’ Lalna only muttered the last few words, and Nano was too far away to hear.

‘OK, and, second question... what happens now?’

‘Well, I dunno. I’ve always worn protective suits when I’ve gone inside. Before right now, I mean.’ Lalna rubbed at his arms. ‘I feel shivery...’

Nano stopped circling. ‘Maybe you should go lie down? Wait, you don’t have a bed. Do you have a bed yet?’

‘I guess we’re gonna have to wait and see...’ Lalna fired up his jetpack and began to carefully float downwards. ‘I don’t think you should come near me for a while.’

He could hear Nano following him down. ‘All, alright then... do you want some scented candles? I think I have a few.’

Lalna landed right next to the cellar doors. ‘No, I think you should just stay away. And bury all the doors. Just as a precaution, alright?’

Nano was nodding as Lalna dropped down into the cellar. ‘...Alright. We’ll put lessons on hold for today. When, when should I get you out?’

Lalna shut the door. There was a scraping sound, and something slamming against the ground. ‘Just wait for me. If I’m not out for... a week, assume the worst and go to the Jaffa Factory. Tell Xephos not to come find me, I’m under quarantine.’

‘What?!’ Nano rushed forward and pushed at the door. It was stuck tight. ‘Wh- why, I’m not just gonna leave you here!’

Lalna’s voice was muffled now. ‘What? Oh, no that’s not it. I just don’t think I have enough food for you to last more than a week here.’

‘O-oh. Well...’ Nano pressed a hand against the door. ‘Um. Goodnight?’

Behind the thick oak door, the scientist paused. He eyed the bookcase he had dragged over the door critically. He sighed, placing his hand against it and giving an experimental shove. Good, sturdy. ‘See you in the morning. Hopefully.’

As Nano turned away, headed for her tower, she tried to ignore the sound of Lalna’s voice pondering whether or not he was going to wake up.

**+++  
**

Three days later found Nano scowling as she searched through the crates.

‘Gunpower, would that go in vanilla? He wouldn’t stick it in magic, would- oh my god, he puts it in magic. What the hell? What do I do with a zombie brain?’

Nano turned around, still muttering to herself. ‘Seriously, couldn’t he make like, a big index to his sorting system? Or maybe a map, a massive chart...’

Nano stopped abruptly. Her eyes bugged for a second. ‘Um.’

Lalna dragged himself past her and headed for one of the chests. ‘Hey, Nano,’ he said flippantly.

‘Lalna!’ Nano trailed behind the scientist. He didn’t look much like a scientist right then and there. His labcoat was gone, replaced with a dusty blue hoodie. ‘What. Where’s you labcoat?’

‘Hm? Oh, I threw it in a furnace,’ Lalna said.

Nano’s eyes dropped back down to Lalna’s arms. And his neck. ‘Lalna... um.’

Lalna’s eyes followed Nano’s, until he too was looking at his arm. ‘Oh. Yeah, that.’ Lalna reached down and pushed up the sleeve.

Nano jerked backwards.

There were purple...worms, or ooze, or something that was rippling against Lalna’s skin. It was rippling and crawling without moving anymore out of the sleeve, reaching out towards his hands.

‘Is, is that....’

Lalna looked tired, his eyes barely open. ‘It’s all over my shoulders, and, and my neck.’

Nano reached forward, pushing the hood to one side. Lalna stayed still as Nano inspected the purple, thready ooze. ‘Is that stuff from...?’

‘It’s the flux,’ Lalna said miserably.

Nano dropped the hood and backed away. Quickly. ‘It looks like... noodles.’

Lalna’s head jerked up and around and he stared at Nano. ‘Noodles? There’s sticky flux stuff all over my back, and you think it looks like noodles?!’

‘Well, like, those really thin ones, embedded into your... flesh...’ Nano peered at Lalna’s face. It was scrunched up in an expression of _Nano, what the heck?_ ‘So... do you want some breakfast?' **  
**

It only took a few seconds for Lalna’s eyes to light up. ‘Oh that would be lovely,’ he said, following Nano out the door. **  
**

The duo's voices faded as they left the tower. ‘I got some cookies from Xephos and Honeydew, they’ve been sending things ever since... this... happened.’

‘You told them about this?’

'Well, no. I told them you had a really bad cold and I might need care packages....'

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> A great deal of this dialogue is directly lifted from the actual episode "The Apprentice: Duncan's Lab - #4 - Accident in the Workplace." This was meant to be an experiment to see how well I could write scenes with limited dialogue to choose from. I didn't succeed, but it was a fun experiment.
> 
> Edit (19/05/2017): Let's just ignore how one instance of "Lalna" was missing an N for years, ok?


End file.
